WORDS NOT TO USE IN POEMS / ELIZABETH CAMPBELL
Someone likened me to the Taliban the other day, because of my desire for less dreadful poetry to be published in this country. Seriously. Apparently wishing for fewer bad books is the first step toward burning books. Hmm. Even we irascible SoLongistes probably couldn’t muster that much fiery loathing for the bad, to put in for the council permit. Best if they’re just not published in the first place.
Burning books is not a solution – everyone getting a little more serious might be.
In a spirit of seriousness, I googled ‘words not to use in a poem,’ expecting to find many satirical lists like the one below, by disillusioned clever-clevs like me, but I was surprised at the wise interweb’s silence on this crucial area of the poet’s craft.
That’s what poetry is all about these days, I have heard: ‘craft,’ so go on, Australian poets, have a go at some pomes without the words below, which I have arranged forensically, in order to help you consider how they might work in a poem (or not):
tongue
grammar
silence meniscus
littoral light
language
swallow mute blood vein
bone
rib-cage rigging craft
blood-orange
map
mapping
geography
cartography
stenography
history lips tide
Doc-Martens
scorched tracery
delicate
palimpsest
unspoken
vellum verandah
broken
fragile
grace
wings
song
sing
sang
sung season memory
emerge
divorce
Lamborghini
PS – wondering if Australian Poetry would like to publish the list above as its poem of the week?
